Good ideas falling on deaf ears

Why hasn’t the William S. Hart Union High School District board and superintendent shown leadership in dealing with the cancellation of eighth-grade promotion ceremonies?

I was outraged when I read in the April 2 edition of The Signal (“Parents take it to Hart”) that board President Paul Strickland said, “As far as the board’s concerned, we cannot rescind something we did not vote on.”

The board is the ultimate decision-maker of the district. The board does have the power to instruct the superintendent to reinstate the promotion ceremonies.

Currently, the board is hiding and silent on the issue — just hoping it will go away.

On such a publicly charged issue, true leaders would state their position. Their constituents have a right to know.

At the March 31 board meeting, there were a lot of frustrated parents and students. The Hart district has not addressed their concerns or ideas — not at the meeting or on the district Web site.

In fact, the “Board Round-Up” summary of the meeting on the district’s Web site doesn’t even mention an item that took up an hour of time in the public comment portion of the meeting.

I believe what is the most frustrating to the community is the lack of communication from the district. The parents and students want to work with the Hart district, but the district remains mute.

Many good ideas were presented at the meeting to help the district.

These ideas included fundraising, suggestions for cutting costs and parents offering to volunteer. These ideas have fallen on deaf ears and aren’t even acknowledged by the Hart district board.

It is time for the board and superintendent to show leadership and let their position be known, or work with the community instead of outright ignoring them.